“The Vikings are brilliant! The longboats were awesome” “The Vikings were fierce, vicious and merciless” “I love Loki – he’s the god of mischief and so mean” “The Vikings ate a lot of meat, but they ate fruit and vegetables as well.  The carrots were purple then and they used honey instead of sugar."

The Vikings have proven to be a rich and rewarding topic for the Dragons this term.  So far, the children have explored and answered questions about the Viking age and have looked in particular at the Viking invasion of Britain over 1,000 years ago. Key questions included:

Who were the Vikings and where did they come from?

Why did they raid British shores, and why did some of them settle here?

How did they live, and what was everyday life like for most Viking settlers? What made Viking longships so successful?

What can we learn about their beliefs through our reading of Norse myths and sagas?

What do we know about the Vikings in Britain? What evidence do we have they were here?

Excerpts and illustrations from children’s work this term:

On Viking beliefs: I’m going to tell you about the Norse gods and goddesses. I really liked the stories about the gods doing crazy and strange things. We learned about Odin, the god of wisdom and the All father. He gave up his eye to gain wisdom. Freya was the goddess of love, war and death. The Vikings believed that when they died, they would go to Valhalla.  There they would feast all night and battle all day.

On Viking Long houses: I liked learning about Viking Longhouses mainly because I knew 0% about Viking normal life before this term…. Viking longhouses had no windows, so it was dark.  Actually, it wasn’t dark, because there was a big fire in the middle. They used oil lamps too, which could set things on fire. The animals had a different room in the longhouse.   

I liked learning about Viking Longhouses because it was fun to learn how different everything was in the Viking age. Many families lived in one room. They didn’t have any windows and there was no light except for an open fire which they used for cooking. Instead of sleeping in normal beds, they slept on benches around the room. Vikings settled here in Britain partly because the weather was warmer than their homes in Scandinavia. Some Vikings came to raid monasteries because they owned gold.  They also wanted to kill monks!

On Viking food: I liked learning about Viking food because it was fun looking at the differences between Viking food and modern day food. For example, the Vikings actually ate cake (well it was oatcake, but still cake).  

On Viking Longships: Viking longships were quite clever, because the stern was the same as the front of the boat.  This meant that they had an easy escape route because they could just sail backwards!

 

Outdoor learning is now part of daily life at Chadlington Primary School and our children tell us that they love it! 

 

This week we were very pleased to open the glasshouse in our eco-garden for our outdoor learning classroom. 

Mrs Hornibrook cut the ribbon on the glasshouse and parents were invited to see inside the beautiful glasshouse which is a new feature in our eco-garden classroom.

With our new eco-garden classroom area, the children will be able to develop environmental awareness, connect with nature, learn risk-taking, resilience and adaptability. They will learn by doing and engaging their senses; learn about healthy lifestyles, build confidence and develop social skills.

Not only this, but it will be used for the delivery of key subject areas of the National Curriculum. For example, the children were able to think about how much compost was needed and the capacity of each pot.

Measuring the beds for planting plans and grids.

The children have been considering whether we can grow a Viking crop, and what our seedlings need to survive.

In the pond area the children have been observing and recording the variety of living things that can be found in a freshwater habitat. 

 

They have been using classification keys to identify and name living things in the pond area. 

The Shire went on a nature walk and gathered berries. They picked blackberries and rosehips, hawthorn and elderberries. Once Mrs Mahoney had boiled the berries, the children used the liquid for painting.

One of the colours was reminiscent of Peter Rabbit's blue jacket, so perhaps Beatrix Potter used natural berry-made paints for her illustrations? 

We warmly invite you to our Eco Classroom opening and Meet and Greet on this Wednesday, September 18th at 4pm, to hear more about the changes at school including our outdoor learning, the eco garden and new greenhouse build.

The Shire: the Pixies have some new building blocks which they have been enjoying using to build with this week. The Elves and Griffins have been continuing to create their sock rabbits. 

 

Dragons: have been on residential in the Lake District where we'll be doing some geo investigation into rivers and the water cycle. We are looking forward to sharing photos with you soon.

Wizards: have been joined by some of the Dragons this week. We have looked at the story of Joseph and we have started to create a collage based on the story. The Wizards have found out about the Picts and how they invaded Britain - they also used the symbols the Picts used when writing to create some words and sentences for other children to work out. In Geography, the children have used online maps to find different places in Scotland where the Picts settled. 

 

We are looking forward to welcoming everyone back to the new school year on Thursday 5th September.